Carl Vine: Canzona (1985)

Abstract

"Canzona was commissioned with funding from the Music Board of the Australia Council for the Australian Chamber Orchestra's Gala Tenth Anniversary Concert in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall on 30 November 1985. By this time the orchestra was regularly using wind, brass and percussion players in its concerts, but Vine's commission was for the permanent core of string players: five first violins, four second violins, two violas, two cellos and a single double bass. This is Vine's note from the concert program: The term 'canzona' is used here in its broadest possible sense as a song for instruments. As the simplest of starting points, then, the chamber orchestra is viewed as a collection of 'singing' instruments, presented either in melody or complex CQUQterpojnt, Although cast in a single movement, the work falls into two principal sections. The first evolves from a stmple melodic development into a slow waltz-like figure. The second is based on a straightforward chord progression that undergoes a eries of convolutions, leading to a Presto finale. The work open with lines of dissonant polyphony whose harmony and sonority recall Bart6k. Hannonically simpler territory is established when pizzicato octaves on cello and double bass introduce a section of expressive meandering polyphony for two solo violins. The tempo is a slow waltz rhythm (this is Vine's 'first section'). These lines of interweaving melody - and three-in-a-bar accompaniment are soon hames edt however, into forceful block chords, and a combination of rapidly increasing tempo, changing metres, energetic dotted rhythms and strong dynamic contrasts brings this section hurtling to a glowingly sonorous cadence. The triple metre is then resumed, but more slowly and with gently sounded syncopations and delicate papery harmonics; above this the solo first violin begins a song full of nostalgic charm which is taken up by a cello in lyrical mid-range. Polyphonic imitations of very simple material and effective triplet chordal ostinati serve as a bridge to a second hearing of this canzona for violin and cello. We have arrived at Vine's 'second section'. A progression of quiet, slow moving legato chords in quadruple metre is immediately restated in dotted rhythms and motoric semiquavers and then, almost inevitably, in swift triplets. Suddenly, however, the sequence of variations disintegrates in a shimmer of ppp trills and harmonics through which fragments of the chordal theme can be fitfully heard: it is as if the ACO's baroque repertory has been ambushed in the Australian musical landscape and one recalls the fate of the colonial music in Sculthorpe' s Port Essington (written for the ACO strings in 1977 and an established favourite in the orchestra's Australian repertory). A little canon for solo violin and viola marks the return to 'civilisation': this is the score's most dazzling section as multiple series of ostinati and scurrying triplet figures rebuild the polyphonic texture and the chordal theme reasserts itselffragment by fragment, phrase by phrase. The theme is then fully restated in two final variations, the first again involving rapid triplets and the second grids of three against two triplets and duplets. The final pages are winningly scored contrasts of massive punctuating chords· and a repeated three note chord on solo violin and the violas, one note on each instrument. This is the motif which ends the work, a gesture that contains a hint of amused irony." -- Brett Johnson Show more